Johnny English (film)
Johnny English is a 2003 British Action/comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre. The film stars Rowan Atkinson as the incompetent titular English spy, with John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Pigott-Smith and Ben Miller in supporting roles. The screenplay was written by Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (screenwriter),The film was directed by Peter Howitt. Plot Johnny English is a kindhearted but inept MI7 secret agent with dreams of being their most trusted employee. After Agent One dies in a submarine accident unknowingly caused by English, the remaining agents are assassinated via a bombing at Agent One's funeral, leaving English as the lone surviving agent capable of finishing the mission Agent One left when he died. English is assigned to thwart a plot to steal the Crown Jewels, which are on display at the Tower of London. After English meets a woman named Lorna Campbell during the display, the power suddenly suffers a blackout and the jewels are stolen. During the chaos, English accidentally knocks out the deputy head of security and pretends to fight an assailant out of sight to cover up for his mistakes. He later makes up a false description of the "assailant" to MI7 head Pegasus. English and his assistant Bough find that the jewels were removed via a hole dug beneath their display case. The two follow a tunnel where they confront two thieves named Dieter Klein and Klaus Vendetta, who escape in a hearse, with English trying to pursue them but he mistakes another hearse for the escaped vehicle to which he accidentally gatecrashes a funeral until Bough comes to his aid by pretending English is an escaped mental patient. English connects the thieves to Pascal Sauvage, a French prison entrepreneur who helped restore the Crown Jewels. Pegasus finds the claims of his involvement absurd and warns English not to involve Sauvage. In the car park, English and Bough are attacked by Vendetta but are unharmed. English again encounters Lorna in a sushi restaurant as he recognized her pink motorcycle. During their meeting, English is suspicious of her since he has seen her at two of their crime scenes and her records cannot be found on any government computer. English and Bough then decide to break into Sauvage's headquarters that night via parachutes, but English mistakenly lands on a visually identical tower which turns out to be the City Hospital. Going to the correct building, the two learn that Sauvage, who is a descendant of Charles Edward Stuart, plans on making himself king, using an impostor to impersonate the Archbishop of Canterbury. Lorna arrives, revealed to be an Interpol agent tracking Sauvage. With evidence of Sauvage's involvement, English crashes a reception hosted by Sauvage, but he is fired from his job by Pegasus for his actions. With English knowing his plans, Sauvage scraps the plan to use the fake Archbishop and instead sends his minions to force Queen Elizabeth II to abdicate by threatening her corgis, causing the entire line of succession to be swept clean for Sauvage to become king. Lorna, now in charge of the assignment by Pegasus, visits a depressed English in his apartment and convinces him to travel with her to Sauvage's French château to investigate. Eavesdropping on Sauvage's meeting with internationally renowned criminals, English and Lorna learn that Sauvage plans to turn the United Kingdom into the world's biggest prison when he becomes king. English and Lorna are exposed when the latter accidentally activates a microphone and they are caught prisoner. English tries to steal the DVD of Sauvage's plan, but accidentally drops it onto a tray full of numerous blank identical discs and takes the wrong one instead without looking before he and Lorna are captured. Bough suddenly arrives and rescues the two from captivity before they race to stop Sauvage's coronation. English eventually crashes the coronation and discovers the Archbishop is the genuine article. Undeterred, English orders Bough to play Sauvage's DVD, only to find it is instead video footage of himself dancing in his bathroom wearing his underwear singing "Does Your Mother Know" by ABBA, Sauvage having took English's flat beforehand. English sneaks away, but swings in on a wire to steal St. Edward’s Crown from Sauvage. Sauvage then attempts to kill English with his gun, causing him to drop the crown. Moments before Sauvage is crowned king, English drops from the wire after being shot, lands on the throne where he kicks Sauvage off and is crowned instead. Because of the succession laws, English is now technically the King of England. In his singular act as king, English had Sauvage arrested for his crimes by MI7 and restores the Queen to the throne by simply requesting a knighthood as a reward. English and Lorna then drive to southern France for a romantic holiday, only for English to accidentally launch Lorna out of the car by pressing an ejection seat button while leaning in to kiss her. Lorna lands in a hotel swimming pool where Bough is seen on holiday as well as a man identical to the assailant English had described to Pegasus earlier. Cast * Rowan Atkinson as MI7 Agent Johnny English * Ben Miller as MI7 agent Angus Bough * John Malkovich as Pascal Sauvage * Steve Nicolson as Dieter Klein * Douglas McFerran as Klaus Vendetta * Natalie Imbruglia as Interpol Agent Lorna Campbell * Tim Pigott-Smith as Pegasus * Oliver Ford Davies as the Archbishop of Canterbury * Kevin McNally as the Prime Minister * Greg Wise as Agent One * Tim Berrington as Roger * Tasha de Vasconcelos as Countess Alexandra (Exotic Woman) * Nina Young as Pegasus' secretary * Sam Beazley as Elderly man * Kevin Moore as Doctor * Jack Raymond as French reception waiter * Jenny Galloway as the Foreign Secretary * Chris Tarrant (voice) as Radio announcer * Trevor McDonald (voice) as Newscaster * Bond as String Quartet Production The character of Johnny English himself is based on a similar character called Richard Latham who was played by Atkinson in a series of British television advertisements for Barclaycard. The character of Bough (pronounced 'Boff') was retained from the advertisements though another actor, Henry Naylor, played the part in the ads. Some of the gags from the advertisements made it into the film, including English incorrectly identifying a waiter, and inadvertently shooting himself with a tranquiliser ballpoint pen. Filming locations * Some scenes were filmed at Canary Wharf in London— indeed, the film duplicates the single real tower into two identical ones (albeit on the real site) for the fictional London Hospital and Sauvage's headquarters at 1 Canada Square. * The scenes set in Westminster Abbey were filmed in St. Albans Abbey : though this connection is solely implied through the dialogue — for this footage is never intercut with footage of the real abbey's exterior. The interior (with the televisual screen hiding the St Albans organ) is clearly St Albans. The choir singing in the coronation scene is St Albans Cathedral Choir. * Both the exteriors and interiors in the opening credits sequence scene is Mentmore Towers. * 'Sandringham' is Hughenden Manor. * The exterior and interior of MI7's headquarters which English enters at the start is Freemasons' Hall, London, which is also used as Thames House (the MI5 headquarters) in Spooks. * The scenes where Johnny English drives into Dover, Kent along the A20 road (with Dover Castle in the background) and then enters the Port of Dover (with a "Dover Ferry Terminal" sign, Dover's Athol Terrace and the White Cliffs of Dover in the background) to catch a ferry to France, were all shot on location. * The exterior of Sauvage's French chateau is actually the castle atop St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Reception The film received a largely mixed response from critics, many of whom described it as having a formulaic, predictable narrative and meaningless, often nonsensical storyline. It holds a 33% approval rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes based on 116 reviews with the consensus "A tame spy spoof that elicits infrequent chuckles." Soundtrack All tracks written by Edward Shearmur and performed by London Metropolitan Orchestra unless otherwise noted. # "A Man for All Seasons" (Hans Zimmer, Robbie Williams) – Robbie Williams # "Theme from Johnny English" (Howard Goodall) # "Russian Affairs" # "A Man of Sophistication" # "Kismet" (Written by Gay-Yee Westerhoff) – Bond # "Truck Chase" # "The Only Ones" – Moloko # "Parachute Drop" # "Pascal's Evil Plan" # "Theme from Johnny English (Salsa Version)" (Howard Goodall) – Bond # "Off the Case" # "Cafe Conversation" # "Into Pascal's Lair" # "Zadok the Priest" - Handel # "Does Your Mother Know" – ABBA # "For England" # "Riviera Hideaway" # "Agent No. 1" Sequel A sequel, Johnny English Reborn, began filming in September 2010, was released on 7 October 2011 in the United Kingdom, and was released on October 21, 2011 in the United States, in which Johnny was shown to be training in Asia when MI7 calls him back to London, where Johnny is sent on a mission. Category:Films